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N.A.B.O. Nevada Weekend Follow Up |
The Fall 2006 NABO weekend
in Reno & Gardnerville marked one of our most ambitious
endeavors to date, and overall the feedback came back
positive. Now the challenge will be to follow up and
deliver on some of the initiatives formulated. In the
weeks to come there will be more in "Astero," but here
follows a brief overview of what happened.
You
will find a background article preceding the weekend
clicking on
NABO Udazken Biltzarra
Prelude: NABO meeting with Basque Government in
NYC |
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The weekend before the big NABO gathering in
Nevada, another meeting was held in conjunction
with the ongoing efforts to continue improving
communication between our Basque-American
communities and the Basque Autonomous of
Euskadi. Representing NABO was President Mary
Gaztambide & Facilitator John Ysursa who meet
with the Basque Government's office of relations
with the Basque Diaspora: Josu Legarreta, Benan
Oregi & Martin Andoni.
T he
round of meetings was held in conjunction with
the tribute to Jesus Galindez, a representative
of the Basque Government in exile that fifty
years ago was mysteriously abducted and never
found again. A forum was held at Columbia
University, where Mr. Galindez taught and then
another event at the New York Basque club marked
the formal presentation of a book about the life
of Galindez. To read more about this event
click on
A1.29: Jesus de Galindez tribute in NYC
There is much that
the BG & NABO can do together, so the primary
goal of these face-to-face meetings was to find
common ground. What emerged was an initial
short-list of objectives. One is the necessity
of compiling information about our Basque clubs
& communities. This is necessary for at least
three reasons: we need this information to
assist with the publication of a book on the
history of NABO that is forthcoming; second the
Basque Government is oftentimes blind when they
are endeavoring to allocate financial assistance
to entities of which they have only sketchy
knowledge; and third if NABO is going to better
serve its members--we too need to know who and
what we are. Accordingly, an effort will be
made to acquire this general information (e.g.,
club address, list of regular events, cultural
activities hosted, etc.)
A
second goal is to create one central webpage
that will merge the existing separate sites of
basques.us, euskara.us and nabo.us This will
help to bring everything under one roof, and
give us one identity. Look for this to debut by
the first of the new year. Note that this will
not impact your current Astero subscription;
email notices that are sent to you come with the
necessary link.
The
third short-term objective for NABO was to
commence work on formulating a 4-year plan of
action that seeks to identify our strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A group
of folks volunteered at the Gardnerville NABO
meeting to get this going. The aim is to help
NABO (and by extension local Basque
organizations) formulate a plan that will
hopefully allow us collectively (NABO) and
individually (member organizations) to execute
some worthwhile ventures. Look for more
information about this coming soon.
ESKERRAK: Thanks
to the Basque Government for the invitation and
hosting us in NYC, as well as the organizers of
the fine event at the Euzko Etxea of New York.
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Summit of North American delegations |
A generation ago NABO began with the hope that
someday a federation would embrace Basque
organizations throughout North America--the name
United States Basque Organizations was purposely
not chosen. The weekend in Nevada was a
significant step in that direction.
 Representatives
from the clubs in Canada (Jean Claude
Elissalde from Montreal, and Elena Sommer
& Jon Laurenz from Vancouver), Mexico (Eduardo
Ormaechea & his wife Miren Jauregi
from thye club in Mexico City) met with NABO
representatives to look into the possibility of
doing some things together in the future.
Not surprisingly, the response was positive to
explore this possibility. It wasn't a surprise
because we are all interested in doing the same
thing--keeping our Basque identity alive.
Delegates enjoyed a full weekend of activities
including a welcoming dinner, then an initial
round of talks that served as a brainstorming
session. They also joined us for our tri-annual
meeting so they could get a better sense of who
and what NABO is by hearing what was happening
and who the people are.
Invited guests
from Canada, Mexico and the Basque country at
the reception dinner at Louis'
By design, there were no fixed initiatives
decided (the first step was to just get
acquainted) and now delegates will return to
their communities to continue the discussions.
There are some tentative plans to get together
again this coming year to strengthen our
relationships and get to know more people from
these communities. The hope is that one day we
can join together in some mutually beneficial
endeavors. A follow-up is hopefully in the
works.
For more about the gathering of these
delegations from Canada, Mexico & the U.S. click
on:
Ipar-Ameriketako Biltzarra: North American
Summit
ESKERRAK: Thanks to the delegates of Canada and
Mexico who came from afar, as well as Nancy
Trevino, Grace & John Mainvil, Mary & Jean
Gaztambide , Xabier Berrureta for helping with
hosting. This was facilitated by a financial
grant from the Basque Autonomous Government of
Euskadi.
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Inaugural Youth Facilitator Workshop |
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NABO was pleased to have counted representatives
from 15 different organizations that took part
in our inaugural "get-acquainted" and
brainstorming workshop. This is encouraging
because our future viability as a
Basque-American community is mostly dependent
upon our ability to effectively transmit a sense
of Basque identity to younger generations.
The topics of discussion included the definition
of youth, a presentation on the recently
available book "Jokua eta Jolasa" that collects
ways of educating children in things Basque via
games and contests, as well as an open forum for
raising issues of mutual concern to youth
facilitators. Whereas dance remains a central
element in connecting with Basque youth, the
workshop explored other viable alternatives.
Urbeltz &
company with the Boise Oinkari dancers with
"Dantza Gambara."
After some open discussions, each facilitator
endeavored to identify an item or two that they
were going to try and use upon their return
home. Furthermore, NABO is now poised to
inaugurate
Gaztealdi that will be held the summer of
2007 for Basque young adults ages 16-20. This
is a crucial age where many make their choice to
identify with being Basque. Details will be
forthcoming. There is also a plan to arrange a
follow-up workshop for facilitators. The hope
is to stay connected to share ideas about how to
best keep young people involved.
For more information click on:
Youth Facilitator Workshop: Creating a Viable
Network
ESKERRAK:
Thanks to all the facilitators who spent their
money and gave of their time to participate.
Thanks also to Kate Camino/Gloria Totoricaguena
for helping arrange the facility.This
was facilitated by the donation of the "Jokoa
eta Jolasa" books by the Basque Autonomous
Government of Euskadi.
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NABO's College Lecture Series |
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NABO is now in the business of education, to the
extent that education holds the key to keeping
people better informed and thus hopefully more
closely identified with their Basque identity.
If we cannot find effective ways of transmitting
Basque culture to younger generations, then the
future looks bleak for keeping our
Basque-American community vibrant. Accordingly,
NABO inaugurated its first college lecture
series that featured Juan Antonio Urbeltz, a
leading voice in the world of Basque folk dance.
Juan Antonio
Urbeltz speaking at Boise State University
Mr. Urbeltz spoke at three US universities: the
University of Nevada, Reno; California State
University, Bakersfield and Boise State
University. The talks began with an overview of
his work across four decades, and then he spoke
about his current revolutionary theory as to the
origins of some Basque folk dances. His theory
goes to one of the two categories of Basque
dance: the ritual/religious dances (the second
category is recreational/social dances). The
prevailing paradigm revolved around the theme of
these dances deriving from fertility rituals of
magic. They were based in ritual of magic,
Urbeltz agrees, but the magic was not to bring
the good (in this case fertility) but to ward
off the bad (specifically the infestation of
insects). To read more about his theory click
on:
Lecture by Juan Antonio Urbeltz
Juan Antonio was joined on this trip by his wife
Marian and their son Mikel who joined him
following his talks playing some tunes, as well
as conducting three "Dantza Gambara" or audience
participation workshops in Gardnerville, Chino
and Boise.
ESKERRAK:
Thanks to the Urbeltz family for coming to join
us, as well as the hosts in each community
(Steven Gamboa in Bakersfield, John Bieter in
Boise and Kate Camino & Gloria Totoricaguena in
Reno) for arranging the presentations, and a
special thank you to Lisa & Enrike Corcostegui
for their work.
This was facilitated by a financial grant from
the Basque Autonomous Government of Euskadi.
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NABO meeting of delegates in Gardnerville, NV |
We
have had many a meeting in NABO, but this one
was unique in several ways. For starters,
delegates had previously agreed to alter the
usual format to allow for some new items. This
included the first time we a timer was used, and
this helped to remind people about how long they
were speaking. The feature, however, was a
keynote presentation to delegates by Dr. Gloria
Totoricaguena, Director of the Center for Basque
Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno that
had everyone talking afterwards--and that was
the point.
 NABO
went through its initial phase of brainstorming
when it was founded decades ago. At that time,
delegates gathered in the Reno area to formulate
what NABO was going to be about; this time just
down the road delegates revisited these same
themes: what is NABO striving to be? What does
it seek to accomplish? Dr. Totoricaguena
provided delegates some constructive criticism,
working through a SWOT analysis: identifying
NABO strengths and weaknesses, new opportunities
as well as threats on the horizon. She
challenged delegates to re-think what we were
doing individually (in our clubs) as well as
collectively on the NABO level.
To access a condensed
version of her presentation click on
http://www.nabo.us/Gloria/ To
download the actual 55 MB Microsoft Powerpoint file you can do so by
going to:
www.nabo.us/Gardnerville-NABO.ppt
Her ideas then sparked a post-lunch open forum
where for a couple of hours delegates shared
various ideas from which several initiatives
emerged. It was spontaneous, but it was clear
that there are plenty of people who are
committed to trying to do things well when it
comes to keeping Basque culture alive. Some of
the points she raised will be used as the basis
of formulating a viable 4-year plan for NABO
(noted above), a draft of which will be made
available to delegates at the San Francisco
meeting in February for their input.
Delegates
enjoying the post-meeting dinner party at the
Carson Valley Country Club.
ESKERRAK:
Thanks to our hosts, the Mendiko Euskaldun Cluba
of Gardnerville, NV for arranging a fine day.
Furthermore, thanks to those who have
volunteered to do extra work for NABO.
|
Click on
NABO Udazken Biltzarra
for the
overview article of the NABO weekend forum |
